Documentary about different prisoners and their life in prison. On his first day in prison, an inmate is registered, searched and classified according to his record and personality. Losing freedom is traumatic. Prisoners at risk of suicide are not left alone. Very hard. "Devastating." "Terrible." Former minister Santi Vila spent his first and only night in the Madrid prison of Estremera in a state of shock, sent by the judge of the National Court Carmen Lamela for the alleged crimes of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement. When the cell door closed behind him at nine o'clock at night and he found himself alone with another inmate, he was afraid. Physically afraid. "I was scared," he confessed in statements to 'El Mundo'. It turned out that the roommate who had seemed so threatening was very kind and polite: he helped him make the bed. “It’s obvious that he hasn’t done military service,” he said, and shared his television with him. “Look, they’re talking about you there,” encouraged the prisoner, who was sentenced for a “serious crime” that the PDeCAT politician did not detail. The door opened at eight in the morning and Vila, now calmer, had breakfast and went through the interviews with the psychologist, the educator and the prison doctor. He had time to take out a couple of books from the library before, at noon, his 50,000 euro bail was paid. Not even 24 hours had passed. At the door, his partner, the Telefónica employee Javier Luque, was waiting for him. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,” admitted Vila, the only one of the imprisoned ex-councillors who resigned a day before the proclamation of Catalonia’s independence and who agreed to give a statement before the judge and the prosecutor. In certain circles, everyone has a cousin or a neighbour who has been in jail and tells stories. For the rest, there are movies. And it is normal to be afraid: Hollywood has been feeding our imagination for decades with prisons full of tattooed murderers where the law of the strongest reigns, tobacco is exchanged for knives and the new guy is always being played in the shower. There is the sadistic warden, the bestial black man, the ruthless owner of the yard and the rest, cannon fodder. Sometimes, to break this vicious circle of violent injustice, a tough but honest guy comes along, hardened in a thousand fights and capable of freezing the blood of other equally dangerous subjects just by looking at him. Nothing to do with Oriol Junqueras. Communication in prison Prisoners in Spanish prisons spend 11 hours in their cells every night, from 9:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. The first call The prisoner has the right to call his family and his lawyer when he arrives at the penitentiary. Afterwards, he can make 10 weekly calls to 10 authorized numbers. Later, he can receive visits, intimate vis-a-vis and family meetings. What is the first day like in a Spanish prison? “For a person who has never been in prison, entering is something traumatic,” admits Jaime Hernández, director of the Albolote penitentiary (Granada), with 1,330 inmates. “It is a strong moment. It has an impact. When they realize what deprivation of liberty is, they ask themselves: 'Where have I gotten myself into?'” Hernández admits. The admission module is the cushion in which the Penitentiary Institutions try to soften the blow. It is a door only for entry. There are several ways to enter the prison. Those who have been arrested or sent from a court arrive at their new home handcuffed in a police van and with what they are wearing. In this case, along with the required hygiene kit, plastic cutlery and sheets, they are also provided with clothes. When it is a voluntary admission, in which the convicted person has a deadline to begin his sentence, he often arrives accompanied by his family and with luggage. If he has never set foot in a prison before, his fingerprints and a photo are taken to identify him, he is entered into the admissions book and his personal file is opened, which from that moment on will record all his "penitentiary incidents." #documentary #crime #spain